I am having some difficulty with glue stains on my completed model building structures. I( am using liwuid cement and everytime I end up with glue stains where it distorts the color of the structure. How can I avoid this situation or how can I remedy this?
Thnaks for the advice.
It sounds like you may be getting too much glue in the joints so it is bleeding out onto the model. You might try using a very small paint brush to apply the glue sparingly. It doesn’t take much to form a bond.
You might also try gluing up the model (or subassemblies thereof) and then painting. The paint will cover any excess glue stains.
Good luck!
One thing you can do while assembling plastic structures is to use a thin CA or plastic weld cement on the inside joint of wall sections. Apply with a brush and hold tightly together for about 20 seconds. The pressure you place on the sections will pull the glue into the joint with a capillary action and not leak through to the outside. For your existing stains you can certainly hide them with paint and various weathering techniques. Hope that helps!
Matt
I had and sometimes still have this problem when using liquid cements (and ACC) using the technique of holding the parts tightly together and applying the liquid cement from the interior side and let capilallary action flood the joint. I conclude the problem is with the word “flood” - I am just using too much – and evidently the parts are not so tight a fit as to be in effect waterproof to prevent the liquid from coming out the other side.
What I do now is use a very tiny amount of the more gooey plastic cement, applied with a toothpick or one of those microbrushes that resembles a tiny Q-tip, let it set a little bit so that perhaps the joint is now more “waterproof”, and then try to apply a much smaller amount of the liquid cement using the microbrush once the joint is already formed – in other words to give final solidity and hardening to the joint, while the initial application of the gooey plastic cement might not be enough to truly fasten the pieces it only needs to last long enough to let the second application do its work.
In summary I guess my mistakes were – too much liquid cement, so now I use a micro brush rather than a real paint sort of brush; not a tight enough joint between pieces, so I join them using what to me is a more reliable and viscous cement for that purpose, but very very little so it does not squeeze out the surface side; and trying to make one application of cement do the trick.
Lately I had some challenging cement needs and was surprised how well minute amounts of liquid nails for projects worked.
Dave Nelson
illyad -
In addition to the advice above, always apply glue sparingly to an internal (unseen) surface whenever possible. Note the word sparingly. Both welds and CA can leave marks on plastic, so there isn’t a “best” glue.
Now, that’s all well and good, but if I’m reading you right, you already have the problem of marked or marred plastic surfaces. This is were modeling creativity really comes in. The “fix” will depend on where the damage is.
Wait till the glue is completely dry/hardened. (It takes longer than you think.) DO NOT TRY TO FIX A WET JOINT - it will only get worse.
For smooth surfaces, sometimes sanding and painting is all that’s needed. If there are lines that have been obscured, sand and rescribe, then paint.
Don’t be afraid to camouflage. Remember that most real building of any real age ain’t perfect. Slight imperfection on building edges can be covered/minimized by adding a gutter or leader.
Imperfections on bases might be hidden by adding a few garbage cans, barrels or a few boxes.
Sometimes minor glue deposits can be worked into the weathering of a structure - again be creative.
And don’t forget that railroad building usually have signs. Sand the underlying area flat and use thin sheet styrene for a backing.
The better you get at building, the fewer “accidents” you’ll have, but it’s never zero. Knowing how to “fix” them makes things more interesting, and IMHO, kinda fun.
Archer
All good suggestions, and I can add that if the problem occurs on a vertical joint, such as where two walls meet, a little medium green ground foam applied down the seam can emiluate vines while covering the problem. Also works to cover where there are gaps in the vertical joint. Clearly doing this on every building would be overkill, but it is an alternative to gutter downspouts.
Also, pretty decent downspouts can be fashioned from leftover sprue that has been trimed and painted aluminum or a light ‘galvanized’ gray.
I’ve seen many attempts by some modelers to close up light leaks in structures by applying a heavy coating of cement from the inside then be upset by said cement coming through the joint and marring the finish. I’ve done that myself back many years ago. Since then I found that it doesn’t take much cement to hold the joints together and just a small dab applied from the tip of a toothpick is usually enough to hold it. I don’t intend to be pitching my structures in any batting competitions so they don’t need much cement. As for closing up light leaks, black electrical tape works wonders.